FAQ’s

Some wing scales are removed with handling, so it is important to minimize the amount you handle a butterfly to reduce the risk of damaging the wings. To hold a monarch butterfly safely, use your thumb and forefinger to firmly grasp all four of it's wings.

Yes, this is because in their previous life as a caterpillar they ate poisonous plants (Milkweed/Swan plant), making themselves poisonous as adult butterflies. Birds learn not to eat them as they can become sick. The stripes on the caterpillar act as a warning sign to the birds that they are poisonous too.

When we breathe, oxygen goes into our lungs and is picked up by blood which carries it to cells throughout our body. Because we are relatively large, we need this complicated system. But insects are so small that tiny air tubes (called tracheae) carry air from the outside directly to body tissues. Air enters and leaves these tubes through small holes (called spiracles) on the outside of the thorax and abdomen. Spiracles are easily seen on larvae and pupae but are difficult to see on adults because they are obscured by scales.

It sometimes looks like adult monarchs only have 4 legs, and that caterpillars have a lot more. However, all insects, including monarchs actually have 6 legs. Adult monarchs hold their front two legs close up to their bodies most of the time, and can even use these two front legs to taste-test milkweed before laying eggs on it! Monarch caterpillars have have 6 true legs (3 sets) and 10 prolegs or false legs (5 sets).

No. All insects have an exoskeleton, a hard covering or special skin (cuticle), which provides support and protects them from water loss. Because of their high surface to volume ratio, insects have the potential to loose water rapidly. The hard cuticle is coated with waxes (long chain hydrocarbons similar to those found in beeswax) which minimizes water loss.

Monarchs are active during the day, or diurnal, and they rest at night or when it is cool in trees, shrubs or other sheltered areas. This state of rest in most insects is called torpor. They do not have eyelids, so they rest with their eyes open. Monarchs are also unable to fly if it is below 15 degrees C.

Butterflies do not have the ability to maintain an internal body temperature and are there “cold-blooded.” They can increase their temperature by basking in direct sunlight. They generally require an air temperature of about 15 degrees C before they are able to fly. They need heat from the sun to warm up their bodies before flying. They cannot fly in the rain as their wings become wet and make flying harder.

A good way to help is to plant swan plants seed early in greenhouses (or sunny rooms) in late winter or early spring. Ensure you cover the seedlings with a net as they grow to prevent the monarchs from laying eggs too early. Seedlings never recover if eaten so early. These plants will get very bushy around January and be ready for the monarchs to lay their eggs on if nurtured correctly and repotted. Even if you have a very small garden or courtyard you can still do your bit to attract the bees and butterflies by having one or two hanging baskets or a plant pot with a few nectar flowers in it.

Host plants in the milkweed family are essential to the developing larva; without it, they would not survive. However, there are many species of milkweed, and monarchs can eat most of them.

Pumpkin is OK for emergencies, but not recommended for the entire life cycle. Best given in the last instar stage, (i.e. at least ten days old or more than 4 cm in length). Any earlier than this and the caterpillars will not get enough cardenolides (nutrients found inside the swan plant) and will not be able to successfully transition to adulthood. Pumpkin also makes them have deformed wings. Most caterpillars die trying to form a chrysalis and drop as they haven’t enough energy. Plus they need to ingest the toxicity from the swan plants, so predators don’t find them tasty to eat.

Buy more or simply before you start raising monarchs, make sure you have a sufficient amount of plants ready.

You can never have enough, the key is to cover your seedlings and your plants that you have purchased and let them grow to a decent size before exposing them to the monarchs to lay eggs on. I would recommend an average size plant of 50cm per caterpillar. Regularly check on your plants and look for eggs each day on the underside of each leaf, any excess eggs remove and cull. As it’s nicer than seeing starving caterpillars running around in the long run when you have no more plants and making you feel worried and having to make emergency dashes to garden centres.

Monarchs find milkweed using their sense of sight and smell (sensory receptors). They have sensory receptors in their antennae and front legs. Females will 'taste' milkweed with their feet prior to laying eggs on it. Reproductive female monarchs continuously move across the landscape in search of milkweed on which to lay their eggs.

Male monarchs will patrol the milkweed patches, waiting for females. While doing so they will chase away other males. The twirling chase they do can be seen as aggressive. This behaviour is not necessarily 'territorial', but is to help them get a chance to mate.

When monarchs are in their chrysalis, they are vulnerable to predation by wasps and flies. It's important for caterpillars to find a spot that they feel secure from predators, as well as sheltered from wind and rain. Caterpillars do not usually pupate on their host milkweed plants. Instead, they move as far as 10 metres from their initial plant to a tree, another plant, or even the side of a house!

It is great that you are observing monarch caterpillars. We discourage the practice of bringing monarchs indoors to raise them. A goal of the monarch conservation movement is a self-sustaining monarch population that can survive from generation to generation without human intervention. The best thing you can do to support monarchs is to create habitat for them!

Butterflies and moths have complete metamorphosis, which means they have four separate life stages: egg, larva (or caterpillar), pupa (or chrysalis in butterflies), and adult. The pupa is a special stage during which the tissues of the larva become reorganized and transformed into those of the adult butterfly. The changes from larva to adult are so extensive that they appear to require this intermediate or resting stage.

Yes, but it is a little difficult. There is a very small line present in one of the abdominal segments of the female that is not present in the male.

Typically, monarchs live between 2 and 6 weeks. The last generation of the year (determined by the decline of nectar plants and environmental factors) do not become sexually mature right after they emerge as adults, as the summer generations do. The late summer butterflies go into what is called reproductive diapause, which means they cannot reproduce. Once spring arrives, the monarchs become mature and reproduce. These monarchs can live much longer for two reasons. They are not using energy to reproduce, and they are in a very cool location. Cool temperatures slow their metabolism, allowing them to live longer.

Monarchs are gliders - they do not rapidly flap their wings like many other flying insects. Instead, they flap their wings a few time, and ride on columns of thermal (warm) air. Because of this, they're able to fly very high. They've been reported as high as 1,250 metres, or over 1 kilometre above the Earth's surface!

No. Heavy rainfall could drive monarchs to the ground where they would be unprotected. Just before rains begin, monarchs seek shelter under overhanging vegetation. At these sites they position themselves vertically, with wings closed. In this position , even if rainfall hits them, the water runs off to the ground.

In general, about 40-50 kilometres. When weather conditions are favourable, they may be able to go further, but poor weather conditions may also prevent them from travelling at all! Many factors influence how far monarchs can travel in one day, so it is quite variable.

Monarchs are able to travel such far distances because they fly very efficiently. They take advantage of air currents and actually soar, like many birds do. This takes much less energy than flapping their wings all the time. They choose altitudes at which they can take advantage of the wind to help them on their long migratory flights. And they don't fly when there's a strong wind blowing in the wrong direction. They also store up a lot of energy for these long trips. This energy comes from the food they eat as caterpillars, and also from the nectar they get from flowers.

Insects have different strategies for surviving the winter. Some only live in places that never experience freezing temperatures, some have evolved to tolerate cold or freezing temperatures in different life stages, and some migrate to escape winter conditions. 'Overwintering' is a term used to describe how something survives the winter.

For monarchs, overwintering means migrating to another location and spending the winter there because they cannot survive the freezing temperatures. Monarchs migrate to overwinter in areas that are warm enough for them to spend the winter without freezing, but cool enough for them to not use all their energy when there isn't much food to eat. Monarchs are in 'reproductive diapause' when they are overwintering, which means they have paused their sexual development and will usually not reproduce until spring. By delaying reproduction and remaining relatively inactive, overwintering monarchs are able to survive up to 9 months. In contrast, breeding adult monarchs in the spring and summer months need plentiful nectar plants to fuel their reproduction, and usually live only about 1 month.

While overwintering, monarchs don't do much! They rest on the tree branches, and occasionally fly around if the weather allows it. Monarchs need to consume enough milkweed as caterpillars and nectar as adults before reaching the overwintering sites so that they do not need to eat to survive while they are overwintering. There is not enough nectar available at the overwintering sites to sustain that many monarchs for the entire winter, but there is typically some nectaring behavior during the winter months.

Monarchs do need water during the winter, so on warm days they find streams or water from dew or fog/clouds on the mountain. They need moisture so that they don't become dehydrated.

They remain fairly inactive clustering in trees to conserve energy/lipid reserves, but do fly some on warm days and warm their wings in the sun.

Monarchs store enough fat so that most if them do not need to eat when they are overwintering. That is why it is so important to have flowering plants available. They do need to drink during the winter, so it is crucial that water or dew is available to them.

You could be seeing monarchs sitting with their wings open for a couple of reasons. For monarchs to fly, it needs to be at least 15 degrees C. Sometimes monarchs will sit with their wings open to heat up their flight muscles. It's also very hard for monarchs to fly with wet wings. If a monarch gets wet in the rain, they may sit and dry their wings.

Monarch butterflies are wildlife, and have been surviving without our help for millions of years. Yes, there are predators and parasites… but every living organism has its predators and parasites which help keep the population in balance.

We urge people who love monarchs to remember they’re wildlife, and not pets. They are cold-blooded and do not ‘suffer’ in the cold. Their wings are waterproof and they can cope with rain. Caterpillars and butterflies know what to do when it’s raining, or windy. They don’t need to be raised indoors or kept warm through the winter. They should be left to do what comes naturally. The fittest will survive and go on to reproduce. It is important that unhealthy butterflies do not reproduce.

Monarchs have been doing just fine without our help for millions of years. While it’s useful to offer some protection against wasps and other predators, the current advice, based on scientific evidence is to raise monarchs in ways that mimic their natural environment. Overcrowded conditions are not seen in nature.

Monarch butterflies, as is everything in nature, are part of a natural food chain. Not all are destined to become butterflies. Some will feed other species, some will even feed the soil when they die.